Public Policy

  • September 23, 2025

    Banks Urge SEC To Hold Crypto Custody To Same Standards

    Financial services trade groups have cautioned the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission against broadly permitting investment advisers and state-chartered trust companies to safeguard customer's cryptocurrency assets, urging the agency to maintain equal standards for all financial custodians amid planned crypto rulemaking.

  • September 23, 2025

    NC Legislature Passes Bill To Eliminate Cashless Bail

    In the wake of the murder of a Ukrainian refugee on public transit allegedly by a man recently arrested and freed on a promise to appear, North Carolina's General Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill to eliminate cashless bail and make it easier to execute people in the state.

  • September 23, 2025

    FCC Demands Boomerang, Others Repay $1.1M For Contracts

    The Federal Communications Commission said it is owed more than $1.1 million for spending more on computer tablets than was needed by two wireless companies during pandemic-era assistance programs.

  • September 23, 2025

    CFTC Seeks Feedback On The Use Of Crypto Collateral

    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission launched an initiative on Tuesday to enable the use of certain crypto assets as collateral in derivatives markets, soliciting industry suggestions on potential pilot programs, amendments to regulations and relevant issues.

  • September 23, 2025

    Hedge Funds Call For CFTC To End Dual Registration

    A group representing the hedge fund industry is calling on the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to drop the need for industry participants to submit to agency oversight in cases where fund managers are already registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, calling the dual registration requirement "costly" and "inefficient."

  • September 23, 2025

    CFPB Frees Apple, US Bank From Biden-Era Consent Orders

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has lifted two more enforcement orders issued during the Biden administration, this time granting both Apple Inc. and U.S. Bank NA an early release from ongoing monitoring years ahead of schedule.

  • September 23, 2025

    New Illinois Law Opens The Door To More Toxic Tort Litigation

    A new Illinois law expanding the state's jurisdictional reach in toxic tort cases has drawn mixed reactions from attorneys, with some praising the law as an added accountability measure for toxic exposure and others decrying it as an open invitation for forum shopping that could clog the state's dockets.

  • September 23, 2025

    ACLU Says ICE Won't Provide Records On Colo. Expansion

    The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Colorado claimed in federal court on Tuesday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is refusing to comply with a request for information on plans to expand operations in the state.

  • September 23, 2025

    Professor Says New West Point Policy Stifles Free Speech

    The longest-serving law professor at West Point has accused the school of violating the free speech rights of its civilian instructors with a new policy that requires professors to obtain permission before participating in or publishing papers tied to their position at the school.

  • September 23, 2025

    Alaska Tribe Fights State's Bid To Revive Gaming Case

    An Alaskan Native Village is fighting a request by the state to reopen a dispute that rejected the tribe's bid to secure the right to open a bingo hall, telling a D.C. federal court there's nothing to enforce in the matter.

  • September 23, 2025

    Enviro Orgs. Ask 5th Circ. To Review Delfin LNG Project License

    Environmental groups on Monday asked the Fifth Circuit to find that the U.S. Department of Transportation violated federal law when it issued a license for the construction and operation of the Delfin LNG LLC deepwater liquefied natural gas project.

  • September 23, 2025

    11th Circ. Affirms Toss Of Ga. Strip Club's Ordinance Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Atlanta-area strip club Follies against the city of Chamblee, alleging the city passed a series of unconstitutional ordinances related to the sale of alcohol at adult establishments that forced it to close its doors.

  • September 23, 2025

    DHS Floats H-1B Rule To Prioritize Higher-Paid Workers

    The Trump administration proposed a rule on Tuesday to change the H-1B lottery process to one that gives priority to higher-skilled workers at companies offering better pay, according to a Federal Register notice.

  • September 23, 2025

    Trump Tariffs Are Constitutional, President's Allies Tell Justices

    Two Republican lawmakers and two allied nonprofit groups told the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday that it should allow President Donald Trump's emergency tariffs authorized under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

  • September 23, 2025

    Tribe Fights Mont. County's Bid To Delay Voting Rights Case

    An Indigenous tribe is fighting a county's bid to pause its voting rights lawsuit in Montana federal court, arguing that a dilutive map illegally supports an "at large" election system that has resulted in a failure to meet the needs of tribal citizens.

  • September 23, 2025

    Ex-Provost Says UNC Hired Belichick After Unlawful Meeting

    A former provost is suing the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's board of trustees in state court, alleging the board conducted last-minute hiring deliberations over a multimillion-dollar contract for legendary football coach Bill Belichick in an unlawfully secret meeting.

  • September 23, 2025

    Cannabis Cos. To Pay $400K In Deal Over Sleep Aid Product

    The companies behind the 1906 brand of cannabis products have agreed to halt all sales in Colorado and pay $400,000 to the state in order to end an investigation into allegations that they sold a marijuana-based sleep-aid product, "Midnight Drops," that might have caused liver problems.

  • September 23, 2025

    Tylenol MDL In Spotlight After Trump Blasts Use In Pregnancy

    The Trump administration's attack on the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy drew on the work of a Harvard expert whose analysis is central to a legal clash now before a federal appeals court. The president's broadside promises to energize plaintiffs.

  • September 23, 2025

    $6.6M IRS Civil Fraud Penalty Ruled Constitutional

    A Pennsylvania federal judge upheld a $6.6 million civil fraud tax penalty against an insurance broker over its captive deductions, ruling Tuesday that the Internal Revenue Service's assessment of the penalty without a jury trial was constitutional.

  • September 23, 2025

    Watchdog Calls For DC, Md. Bar Investigations Into Carr

    A government accountability watchdog brought a complaint against Federal Communications Chair Brendan Carr to the D.C. Bar Association on Tuesday, claiming Carr violated conduct rules when he threatened to bring FCC action against ABC if it declined to discipline Jimmy Kimmel over his remarks following Charlie Kirk's murder.

  • September 23, 2025

    NC Sens. Vote To Cut Planned Parenthood's Medicaid Funds

    Republican state senators in North Carolina have greenlit a bill that would revoke Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, aligning the Tar Heel state with the president's "One Big Beautiful Bill," which prohibits Medicaid funding for nonprofit groups that provide abortion services.

  • September 23, 2025

    Religious Orgs Ask DC Circ. To Revive Bid To Block ICE Raids

    Christian and Jewish religious organizations urged the D.C. Circuit to vacate a denial of their preliminary injunction request to stop immigration raids on places of worship, arguing Monday their injuries caused by attendance drops are traceable to the "unprecedented assault on their religious exercise" by the Department of Homeland Security.

  • September 23, 2025

    Ship's Owner Can't Shift Blame For Bridge Collapse, Court Told

    The Singaporean owner and manager of the container ship that slammed into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge and triggered its collapse cannot try to shift blame for its own failings, the South Korean shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. has told a Pennsylvania federal court.

  • September 23, 2025

    FERC Urges Justices To Let Grid Incentive Ruling Stand

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to disturb its revocation of an incentive for power companies that are required to be members of a regional transmission organization.

  • September 23, 2025

    Feds Illegally Denying Immigrant Bond Hearings, Suit Says

    The Trump administration is deliberately misclassifying immigrants marked for removal proceedings in an effort to illegally skirt their right to a bond hearing, according to a proposed class action filed Tuesday in Massachusetts federal court.

Expert Analysis

  • The Int'l Compliance View: Everything Everywhere All At Once

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    Changes to the enforcement landscape in the U.S. and abroad shift the risks and incentives for global compliance programs, creating a race against the clock for companies to deploy investigative resources across worldwide operations, say attorneys at Dentons.

  • Opinion

    Calif. Must Amend Trade Secret Civil Procedure

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    A California procedural law that effectively shields trade secret defendants from having to return company materials until the plaintiff can craft detailed requests must be amended to recognize that property recovery and trade secret analysis are distinct issues, says Matthew Miller at Hanson Bridgett.

  • Previewing State Efforts To Regulate Mental Health Chatbots

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    New York, Nevada and Utah have all recently enacted laws regulating the use of artificial intelligence to deliver mental health services, offering early insights into how other states may regulate this area, say attorneys at Goodwin.

  • 6 Questions We Should Ask About The Trump Trade Deals

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    Whenever the text becomes available, certain questions will help determine whether the Trump administration’s trade deals with U.S. trading partners have been crafted to form durable economic relationships, or ephemeral ties likely to break upon interpretive disagreement or a change in political will, says Ted Posner at Baker Botts.

  • 'Pig Butchering' Seizure Is A Milestone In Crypto Crime Fight

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    The U.S.' recent seizure of $225 million in crypto funds in a massive "pig butchering" scheme highlights the transformative impact of blockchain analysis in law enforcement, and the increasing necessity of collaboration between law enforcement agencies, cryptocurrency exchanges and stablecoin issuers, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.

  • Justices' Age Verification Ruling May Lead To More State Laws

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton ruling, permitting a Texas law requiring certain websites to verify users’ ages, significantly expands states' ability to regulate minors’ social media access, further complicating the patchwork of internet privacy laws, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • The Pros, Cons Of A Single Commissioner Leading The CFTC

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    While a single-member U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission may require fewer resources and be more efficient, its internal decision-making process would be less transparent to those outside the agency, reflect less compromise between competing viewpoints and provide the public with less predictability, says former CFTC Commissioner Dan Berkovitz.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Relevance Redactions

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    In recent cases addressing redactions that parties sought to apply based on the relevance of information — as opposed to considerations of privilege — courts have generally limited a party’s ability to withhold nonresponsive or irrelevant material, providing a few lessons for discovery strategy, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • How DOJ's New Data Security Rules Leave HIPAA In The Dust

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's recently effective data security requirements carry profound implications for how healthcare providers collect, store, share and use data — and approach vendor oversight — that go far beyond the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, say attorneys at Nelson Mullins.

  • Opinion

    Section 1983 Has Promise After End Of Nationwide Injunctions

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down the practice of nationwide injunctions in Trump v. Casa, Section 1983 civil rights suits can provide a better pathway to hold the government accountable — but this will require reforms to qualified immunity, says Marc Levin at the Council on Criminal Justice.

  • Courts Redefining Software As Product Generates New Risks

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    A recent wave of litigation against social media platforms, chatbot developers and ride-hailing companies has some courts straying from the traditional view of software as a service to redefining software as a product, with significant implications for strict liability exposure, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

  • Trump's 2nd Term Puts Merger Remedies Back On The Table

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    In contrast with the Biden administration, the second Trump administration has signaled a renewed willingness to resolve merger enforcement concerns through remedies from the outset, particularly when the proposed fix is structural, clearly addresses the harm and does not require burdensome oversight, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • Why Bank Regulators' Proposed Leverage Tweak Matters

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    Banking agencies' recent proposal to modify the enhanced supplementary leverage ratio framework applicable to the largest U.S. banks shows the regulators are keen to address concerns that the regulatory capital framework is too restrictive, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Corp. Human Rights Regulatory Landscape Is Fragmented

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    Given the complexity of compliance with nations' overlapping human rights laws, multinational companies need to be cognizant of the evolving approaches to modern slavery transparency, and proposals that could reduce mandatory due diligence and reporting requirements, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • How Banks Can Harness New Customer ID Rule's Flexibility

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    Banking regulators' update to the customer identification process, allowing banks to collect some information from third parties rather than directly from customers, helps modernize anti-money laundering compliance and carries advantages for financial institutions that embrace the new approach, say attorneys at Bradley Arant.

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